Remembered and Remaining
by wujy
Summary: Hermione is injured and left without her magic. With Death Eaters tracking her location, she writes a desperate letter for help and places it in the Sorting Hat, hoping for a miracle. She could never have guessed who would be on the receiving end. /-Now finished.-\
1. Contact

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I affiliated with it in any way.

Note: This fanfiction was inspired by cherryredxx's "Letters" challenge.

* * *

><p>Chapter One: Contact<p>

* * *

><p>To whomever may find this letter:<p>

It's been three weeks since Lord Voldemort was defeated, and yet it seems that the fighting will never end. The Death Eaters have not gone into hiding as they did the last time it appeared the Dark Lord had been vanquished. Perhaps they do not believe it's true. After all, he did cheat death once before.

Perhaps this time, they simply have nothing left to lose. There will be no way to convince the Ministry that they were tricked or threatened this time. The public takeover of the Ministry openly exposed them as the traitors they are. This time they are fighting for their lives, and nothing is so dangerous as a cornered animal with no incentive to hesitate.

Unfortunately, we didn't consider this before it was too late. I was separated from my team today, and my wand. I fear my right leg is broken, and my left wrist. I haven't the strength to Disapparate, and it won't be long before my pursuers realize where I am. I'm in the Headmaster's office in the ruins of Hogwarts. I'm not sure if the rest of my team is alive, but if there is any God, then they're somewhere safe.

I can only hope this old hat has at least one last trick left.

Please find me.

Best of luck,

Hermione Granger

* * *

><p>Dear Ms. Granger,<p>

Had I not recently experienced a number of extraordinary occurrences, the nature of which I can only describe as magic, I might have dismissed your message as contrived nonsense. However, as your letter inexplicably materialized beneath my hat while I was wearing it, I find it nearly impossible to ignore. I can only assume that the proper method of reciprocation is to insert my own message back into the hat and pray that you receive it..

I am afraid that I know nothing of your Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters, nor of this Hogwarts. I endeavor to search for it, and I promise that I will use the full potential of my resources to locate you. Wherever you are, whatever evil has befallen you, I swear I shall find you.

No luck necessary,

Godric Gryffindor


	2. Carry On

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I affiliated with it in any way.

Note: I hope to post once a night until this is finished. As always, please review.

* * *

><p>Chapter Two: Carry On<p>

* * *

><p>Dear Master Gryffindor,<p>

You'll have to excuse me if my handwriting seems shaky. I've read your letter a dozen times, and while it seems impossible, I somehow still believe that you must be who you claim to be. No one but a Gryffindor would have been able to find my message, and no Gryffindor would lie to me about his identity. Not now, when the lives of good men and women are in danger.

Unfortunately, in knowing your name, I also know that there is nothing you can do for me. I doubt I should be telling you any of this, but I live in a world far in your future, centuries after you have died. Even now, your valiance and bravery are things of legend to an entire world of witches and wizards. If it were possible, I believe that you would find me simply because you have sworn to do so, but I'm afraid my situation will make a liar out of you.

All the same, I have always dreamed of speaking with you. You inspired me, you know. Your memory has always made me believe that good will overcome evil, and I have dedicated the greater length of my life to fighting for what is right because of you. Funny—now that I am on my last legs—that you should be the person my letters reach.

Carry on, Godric Gryffindor, my mentor in righteousness. Forget about me. You have a higher purpose.

Always fight the good fight.

Hermione Granger

* * *

><p>Dear Ms. Granger,<p>

You do not seem to me to be a fool, but forgive me in stating that it is foolish to believe that I could forget about you now that I know you exist.

A fortnight ago, I would have put off your messages as devilish lies and crazed delusions, but now I cannot be so sure. I have been in contact with a man who has promised to teach me the ways of magic, has told me that magic is not Satan's device to lure the pious to his clutches, but a tool with which to create a better world. I am a wizard, he has said, as were my parents before me, and if such fanciful things exist in this world, then perhaps letters from a future world are not so flippantly dismissed.

While your words flatter me greatly, however, I am not so easily convinced that any traits I possess could be considered admirable or inspiring, especially not for as many generations as you have implied. My teachers have always insisted that I am incapable of rationality, always acting without any forethought to the consequences of my own actions. I fear I am a great disappointment to everyone, save my new mentor in the magical arts.

And now to you.

Carry on, Hermione Granger, my comrade in inspiration. You shall overcome your dire odds yet.

I have faith in you.

Godric Gryffindor


	3. What We Are

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I affiliated with it in any way.

Note: Thank you for the splendid reviews. Tonight, I'm only posting Hermione's letter, but I hope to have Godric's reply up tomorrow night. As always, please review.

/-wujy

* * *

><p>Chapter Three: What We Are<p>

* * *

><p>Dear Master Gryffindor,<p>

Perhaps I am a fool. After all, I'm still writing to you despite the fact that communicating with the past is against all laws and regulations. What I should be doing is looking for some other way to contact my team or the Ministry. I should put the Hat away and try to get out of this office, past the Death Eaters at the door, and back home.

I know, however, that there is no way out of here without my magic, with my leg in the condition it's in. I've barely the strength to keep writing to you, an act which goes against everything my training and ethics tell me is right. Yet, that's precisely what I intend to keep doing. If I'm honest, and I find that I don't mind being honest with you, I already know the reason I haven't thrown away this quill and ink and focused my strengths on a futile attempt to escape.

I am so very terrified of dying alone.

Yet, even in the face of my own solitary death, all I can really think about is that you must be an idiot. Gryffindors are not irrational; we're instinctual. We don't ignore consequences; we act against adversity, already prepared to face cost. Yes, we jump headlong into the thick of trouble long before anyone else, but it's only because we already know—without question and without hesitation—what the right thing is. You are a hero, Godric Gryffindor, and there has never been anyone who followed your example who wasn't one, too.

Do not accept the way in which the world views you, and do not accept the world as it is.

Change it.

Hermione Granger


	4. Time Apart

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I affiliated with it in any way.

Note: Got this done ahead of schedule, so I'm posting it now. As always, please review.

/-wujy

* * *

><p>Chapter Four: Time Apart<p>

* * *

><p>Dear Ms. Granger,<p>

When I received no correspondence for a week, I became worried. After two, frantic. After a month, desperate. I believed the worst had happened. I believed you were gone. It seems an extraordinary thought when compared the idea that you haven't actually existed yet. I can't explain the sensation entirely, but the fear that I had somehow lost you without having ever fulfilled my promise to find you was overwhelming.

It seems only moments have passed for you, but eleven agonizing months have lapsed since your last letter. Eleven months I've waited to hear from you, and when word finally arrives, I'm rewarded with a lecture worthy of my magic mentor. You are nothing like the meek, boring ladies of my time. You are brazen, confident, and perhaps the wisest person I have ever known. You are also the first person who has ever called me an idiot. Perhaps we have now graduated to a level of formality where you might simply call me Godric.

It may be for the better that your letter was delayed, for I would not have completely understood it until recently. You see, I've found it—Hogwarts. At least, that's why my mentor calls it. He says I've been progressing rapidly. He wants to start a school for magic, and he wants me to help him teach young witches and wizards how to use it. Magic has brought to my life some of the most splendid wonders of which I could never have even dreamed, so of course I've agreed to pass it on to others. My students will call themselves Gryffindors, which I feel is a bit pompous, but it is everything you've said.

The thing I have most longed to share with you these past months, however, is that we have selected the castle to be used for the school, and I've chosen a tower room to serve as my office. This very moment, I'm sitting at the center of the room—perhaps the very one you're lying in now—writing this letter and thinking of you.

Your letters turn me in knots, Hermione Granger. I have never before been so affected by mere words, but I cling to your every one as though each could save me from the world. Perhaps they can, even if only to help me see that I can change it. I will change it. I'll change the world for you. I'll make it into the world that will one day be worthy of having you in it, for any reality that does not meet that potential is not a reality in which I wish to live.

My mentor and I shall craft the world for you through Hogwarts. Even if it's a future we could never share, the world shall be built on Gryffindors and Slytherins.

So close, and only time apart.

Godric Gryffindor


	5. In Spirit

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, not am I affiliated with it in any way.

* * *

><p>Dear Godric,<p>

If I could tell you how right you are without risking that future, I would. As it stands, all I can do is urge you to never give up your dream of teaching magic and sharing your gift. I might suggest, however, that you and Salazar—for I know of his name, too—look for others to help you teach. There is always strength in numbers, and I promise that there will be numbers. There are more witches and wizards than you can imagine, most just terrified to tell anyone. Promise me that you'll search for them with as much determination as you would for me, were it possible for you to find me.

I can't see you from where I am, but this room feels like how I imagine you must feel. Even now, after the second great war, this room stands apart from much of the rubble that remains of Hogwarts. It has remained whole, if dusty, and its very walls sing of the dedication and compassion that have always filled it. If I make it out of this room alive, I promise you that I shall return Hogwarts to her former self. These past few years, she has suffered in silence, a shadow of the castle she was when I attended school here. She deserves better than this. Hogwarts will be a school again. If I have to support it myself, your legacy shall live on.

I can't tell you why, for obvious reasons, but I must ask that you keep yourself safe. It's strange, but even though you've already died by the time I'm writing to you now, I feel as though I might fall apart if anything happened to you. I'm left with this impossible notion that I couldn't live my life without you, even though I already have.

Even though I could never have you.

It's nighttime outside, which marks the end of my third day in this office without food or water or the warmth of a fire. It's getting colder now, and I'm afraid. I'm so afraid. I'm afraid of not waking up in the morning. I'm afraid that the cruel world which has been born of our triumphs against darkness shall never end. I'm afraid that those next to whom I have fought are in danger somewhere. I am so afraid that my letters will stop reaching you.

I can sense you now, though you are long gone, and I can nearly conjure your arms wrapped around me, lending me your strength. It's the warmest I have felt in a long time. I wish there was a way to you. I wish I had more than concepts and false perceptions. I want your breath on my ear and your hand on my shoulder.

I can almost imagine it, but I'm growing so tired. It's time to rest now. I hope to write you when I wake.

So far, but close in spirit.

Hermione Granger


	6. Do Not Die

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I affiliated with it in any way.

Note: My apologies for the delay. I was finishing my Girl Who Lived fic.

* * *

><p>Dearest Hermione,<p>

Two years. I waited two years for this letter. Two years, and when I finally hear from you, you sound on the verge of giving up. Keep your eyes on the horizon, Hermione Granger. Keep your heart beating and your brain ticking, or I fear I may never forgive you. I may never forgive myself for loving you. I may never forgive time itself for preventing me from reaching you.

I am a lost man, Hermione, and without the knowledge of your safety—of the long, prosperous life I know you shall live—I am in danger of never conquering this labyrinth. Hogwarts is not what I thought it would be, and I retreat more and more to this office in the barest hopes that I might get a glimpse of your spirit or a phantom waft of your scent.

Perhaps I am going mad.

And now that I've said that I love you, I realize it sounds daft, but I cannot waste precious minutes rewriting a letter that may not reach you at all if I dally. It will have to stand, I suppose.

I love you.

I miss you in the way that I might miss a sunset that I have never seen, and my heart is heavy with the burden, but if it is your wish for me to journey on, then how can I refuse? I am beholden to your request, and I promise to seek out witches and wizards. I shall search as though each of them could bring me a moment closer to where you are. Only promise me that you will continue being so that I might still feel your impossible echo when I return to this room each night as my reward.

Do not die.

Godric Gryffindor


	7. Breath Within Me

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I affiliated with it in any way.

* * *

><p>My Godric,<p>

I do not know how long I have slept, nor whether it is night or day, nor where my enemies are. I do not know if my comrades are safe or whether anyone is searching for me. I do not know how much longer I will last in this room on my own with no sustenance.

Yet, of all the things of which I am not certain, the one which disturbs me most is that I do not know how long you have waited for this letter. I do not know if years have passed and your feelings faded, or whether time has progressed so rapidly that you have already met your fate and I might never speak with you again.

Do not apologize to me your madness, for if that is what you are, then I am your partner in it. Emotions I have never felt, that I cannot comprehend fully, stir inside me. A joy beyond any I have ever known, and still a sorrow so deep I might down within it.

Even if I leave this room alive, we are an impossibility. We are a cosmic tragedy great enough to rival the literary works of centuries of human creation. I have never understood before what it is about love that blinds people to the inevitable, but I would pay every drop of strength I have left in my body for that blindness.

I love you, Godric Gryffindor, and I fear that I always shall.

For as long as there is breath within me.

Hermione Granger


	8. This I Vow

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, not am I affiliated with it in any way.

A/N: I am SO sorry, everyone, but this story is not written in its ENTIRETY, so I'll be posting a letter a night until it is fully up. Thanks to every ready for every kind word. You have made this my most successful fic, and I owe everything to you. As always, please review.

* * *

><p>Dearest Hermione,<p>

My heart swells with relief that you are still living, my love, though it has been these five years since your last letter. Each day, each moment I do not hear from you, is a dagger in my flesh, but I bear it gladly so long as your letters continue.

Promise me that they will.

It is, by far, the most selfish thing I could ever ask, but forgive me and allow me to be a selfish man with you. Allow me to be greedy for you—to covet every word you write as a dragon hoards jewels. I would give everything in my possession to know that you will survive your dire circumstance, and I would traverse all of time to be by side if I could, to lift you from the shadows and deliver you unto the light.

Though I know of no magic that yet exists that would fly me to you, I can no longer simply sit like a lady-in-waiting and do nothing. I will find some way—devise some method—of ensuring that you walk safely from the halls of Hogwarts to fight your good fight and punish the wicked who torment your world.

This I vow.

Your Godric


	9. I Can Bide

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I affiliated with it in any way.

* * *

><p>My Dearest Love,<p>

It has been twelve months and yet no word, but I could wait no longer to write to you. I have fled from Hogwarts, my home for so many years and the only place that has ever felt like you. I now understand your pleas for me to tread carefully and to keep myself safe.

You extraordinary girl. Without your voice at my ear, I might not have been suspicious enough to leave before I was no longer able to do so. You have saved me, my Hermione, and I shall devote myself to returning that favor.

I mourn the brevity of this letter, but I must be back in motion. My enemies are tireless, but they shall not find me such easy prey as they suspect.

I shall be your champion in this. I swear it.

Your Godric

* * *

><p>My Dearest Love,<p>

Another year has passed, and while I do not expect word from you in some time if our previous pattern of communication is to be followed, I had hoped another letter might boost your spirit.

Salazar Slytherin, who has now shown himself to be my enemy, has—I hope—finally ended his search for me. I can now return in earnest to the fulfillment of my promise to you.

I hope it shall be soon that I hear back from you.

Your champion, always.

Godric

* * *

><p>My Dearest Love,<p>

Six months' research have all but ended in failure. There is no means, I fear, of my reaching you through magic alone, but I have begun searching for alternative methods.

I intend to keep my promise. Do not falter, my love.

Godric

* * *

><p>My Dearest Love,<p>

Forgive the economy of my words, but I believe I have, after yet another year of searching, finally found that which will speed me to you. I have happened upon a source who claims miraculous advances in the field of alchemy.

Perhaps, if I cannot traverse time, I can bide it.

Godric


	10. All I Think Of

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, not am I affiliated with it in any way.

* * *

><p>My Godric,<p>

The light has gone out now, and I am left in blackness, yet still somehow I find the light to read your letters. Each one you send is a lifeline to which I cling. I do not condemn you for your selfishness, but rather am heartened by it. The strength of your passion gives me some measure of hope, but I am so tired, and it is not the simple fatique that the night brings; it is a weariness in my very bones.

I would pledge, with every breath left in my lungs, that my letters shall never fail, but my greatest fear then would be, not in the loneliness of death, but in failing in my promise to you.

That your letters span years, and still you have not faltered in your quest for my rescue makes my heart as light as it can be. I wish I had any knowledge in this fool head of mine, so filled with facts and figures, that could be of use to you or to myself, but simply knowing that, somewhere, sometime, you are fighting for me is a solace.

It is all think of.

Hermione


	11. You Will Be Saved

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, not am I affiliated with it in any way.

* * *

><p>My Dearest Love,<p>

I am aggrieved. I am ashamed. I am a man who has failed you, and for all your talk of my courage, my dear, I am afraid. Salazar Slytherin is a diplicitous serpent, a coward, and a cad, but he is also far cleverer than I, and I must beg your forgiveness for the trick for which I have fallen.

There was no alchemist.

There never was; there was only an ambush into which I strode blindly with the ignorance of an arrogant man whose hubris knows no equal, and I know now what a fool I truly am. I fled with my life by some luck, the origin of which I know not, but I fed you false hope, and for that sin there is no pennance.

More than that—and this pains me more to admit than any words I have ever offered to any man—I am unworthy of any affections you might harbor, for I have been a coward. I have wasted too many years of my own life and too many of the precious few moments you have left in yours, and all for the sake of my own selfish desire to be your rescuer and to look upon your face as I lift you from the darkness. I have known the manner of your salvation for some time, but it is borne of an action that would not alight me to your side, and in my foolishness—my eagerness to be the hero I wish to be in your eyes—I have forgone the righteous path to pursue one that has travelled me almost too far to correct my course.

Had I had the good sense to give to you that which you required at the moment I understood what it was, it would not have had to come to this.

I must return to Hogwarts.

I fear I know what you will say, but I am off the moment that I send this letter. There can be no more waiting. There is a place near the window that overlooks the grounds, a weak stone tucked in the upward corner where the sill juts from the wall. That is where you will find it.

I only beg your forgiveness that I did not leave it for you when Hogwarts was still my home and safe haven, but if the price I pay for my cowardice and for your life is my own, then I can think of no better purpose for it.

I swear to you, you will be saved.

Eternally yours,

Godric Gryffindor


	12. Do Not

DO NOT RETURN TO HOGWARTS


	13. Whatever It Is Worth

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry potter, nor am I affiliated with it in any way.

* * *

><p>My angel,<p>

I know this letter will not reach you, for I have already retrieved the gift you placed for me all those years ago in the wall of that room in which I had become convinced that I would perish. Still, I shall send it in the hopes that it somehow reaches you wherever you have gone.

I had hoped that my last letter, brief and scribbled that it was, would reach you in time to stop you, but I should have known better. Whether you received it or not, I know in my heart that no force in the magical world would have stopped you from fulfilling that final promise to me. In the end, and for as long as I knew you, you were every inch the man I suspected you to be. You somehow rescue me from beyond the reaches of time itself, and if that it not the mark of miraculous hero, then no man may ever be called one.

The wand in the wall was had been dessecated by the ravages of time, but it held true well enough to grant the one thing you wished it to. I am home and and I am safe.

And for whatever it is worth, I am yours.

Hermione Granger

* * *

><p>Note: Okay, so let me first apologize for the long wait from the beginning to the end of this, but I have been considering, by popular demand, to write an alternate ending to this fic as an apology. A happier one.<p>

So, please review. Tell me what you think about getting an added treat in the form of an alt ending. Thanks for sticking with me


End file.
